Chained Below, Crowned Above
Hi reader, greetings and welcome again, I am the Storyteller Spider and today, we will gaze to another tale. As a special of Christmas, this chapter will start on a holiday theme and then we see how it will unravel as I narrate it.
This story takes place in the year 2024, in Wisconsin. It was a snowy day like usual, the city was in holiday theme and the Christmas spirit would run all over the city and its citizens. Everyone seemed excited and happy about the Christmas Day event. While some would spend that day with their family to enjoy every moment they could have, others would go on trips to visit other places with their loved ones or go alone to de-stress a bit from the routine.
However, during this Christmas period, someone didn't seem to be fully in the Christmas mood. We then are presented to a man named Thomas Harrison, or as his friends would call him, Tommy. He didn't have parents anymore and the only member he had as a family was his sister Emma, who lived in Canada with her family. Being a lone guy, Tommy never had many reasons to smile in his life after he lost his mother last year. Not being enough, Tommy was fired from his last job, owned a 3 months rent to the place he lived, and contracted cancer after his last medical check-up. Due to so many disgraces happening to him, Tommy eventually lost his will to live and began cursing his life, blaming everyone and everything for the bad things that would happen to him. Due to having a terminal sickness, Tommy developed depression and problems controlling his emotions, frequently getting himself into bar fights. Putting himself at risk and trying to live the remaining bit of life he still had. Many of his friends have tried to hospitalize him and get him to stay in the hospital to do the treatment, but Tommy didn't wanna spend his last days in a hospital day and worse, dying close to Christmas.
Life is funny as they say, humans value them so much, that they fear what comes when It ends and struggle to accept when someone close to them passes away. Thanatophobia is one of the most influential phobias in the world, statistics point out that at least 15% of the world's population has thanatophobia, being very common in teenagers and adults. But the thing is that the fear of death goes more than a single percentage or statistic, it is a primal fear nearly carved into mankind's primitive mind. Everyone wishes to find peace at the end of their lives but no one wants to go through the dying process. Death is something inevitable that eventually harvests everything, being the last thing to remain in the universe and the last thing to exist before the complete darkness.
Despite having lost all his will in his life, deep down Tommy wished things were different, he didn't expect a miracle but a second chance to live and continue trying his luck in the world.
It was when one day something special happened in his life, a miracle or a curse?
Remaining only 1 day for Christmas, an event was happening in the main city's square. With a massive decorated tree in the middle, citizens could write letters and leave them in a box near the Christmas Tree, expecting their wish would be "granted". Having woken up early on the day to go to the bar, he spent almost all day inside the bar and got out of it around 7 PM to walk back to his home. On the way back home, Tommy saw the big tree and the Christmas box near it, together with the sheet explaining how the holiday wishes worked. Initially finding the idea stupid and nonsense, Tommy grabbed a piece of paper and wrote on it "I wish to be immortal and never die by anything", squishing the paper in his fists and tossing it inside the box before leaving back to his house to rest and sleep.
And so it was Christmas and day 25 arrived, Tommy would wake up like usual to have his breakfast and turn on his TV to watch anything interesting that would be transmitted on that day due to the holiday schedule. While not initially realizing it, Tommy would notice his body felt different than usual. He no longer felt that pain and weakness he usually felt in his body, and neither, even his skin regain its same coloration as before he had the cancer. Thinking it could be a side effect of his disease, Tommy decided to go to the hospital to do another check-up on his health. Upon finishing the exams, the nurses instructed Tommy to stay in the hall to sit and wait for the results from the doctor.
While waiting in the hall, flashes of his childhood with his family would flash through his mind. He would remember the promise he made to his mother, the promise of graduating from an actual college and earning a good job that could pay very well. Mixed feelings of disgust and anger filled Tommy as he couldn't help from feeling useless and with the dry feeling of having failed his mother. Knowing he would die soon and leave nothing but disgust for the memory of his mother were the only thoughts he could think at the moment. His thoughts would be soon interrupted by the doctor coming out of the room, apparently shocked by something while reading Tommy's medical sheet from the exams he did.
For some miracle, Tommy not only managed to recover and get rid of his cancer but somehow his decayed body structures and damaged limbs were back to functioning, being healthy again as it was never affected by his sickness or habits.
Tommy couldn't believe what he was hearing from the doctor, he didn't know if it was a dream or reality. Many thoughts ran through his mind as he remained paralyzed before reacting back with an extreme jump of happiness as the doctor tried to read again to see if that was indeed what he was reading. For as much the doctor tried to question himself on how Tommy got healthy out of the blue, he could only congratulate him and wish him good luck and happy holidays as he apparently received a miracle for Christmas. Little did Tommy know that on this day, would mark the beginning of his torment and make him wish he never made that wish on that day.
The following years would resume with Tommy enjoying his life the best way he could. He no longer felt sick or bad about himself anymore, having overcome depression and even gained a good job that paid well. Not being enough, Tommy managed to graduate from College as an engineer, having fulfilled his mother's last death wish and feeling like the universe was finally smiling back at him for having given him a second chance. All his friends would praise how young he still looked and how successful he had become, it seemed like his life was finally starting to bloom and show good results. Year by year, Tommy would continue to enjoy and praise his long longevity.
As the years passed, it became pretty clear that something seemed wrong with him. He wasn't aging like the rest of his friends, neither feeling any type of sickness or pain from them. Every time he was wounded in any situation, the wounds on his body would automatically heal in less than a second. It slowly became clear to Tommy that he somehow hadn't just become healthy out of nowhere but that he also had somehow become immortal. Could it be? He wasn't sure, he needed to try and test to see if his theory was right.
It would take him more than some minutes to gather courage before breathing and running towards the edge, jumping the highest he could before falling like shit on the floor and breaking every possible bone from his feet to the waists. The pain at the moment was so intense Tommy did not even have time to scream or moan, making him faint automatically due to the intense pain he felt. And as he predicted, his body began quickly healing up every single broken cell within his body. Not only that but adapting his body structure to be more resistant to impacts. This however would not be initially noticed by Tommy as he would be awakened hours later by a local police officer who was patrolling the streets at that time.
The painful feeling of having broken 50% of his body still felt real in his mind, yet his body seemed to be okay and with no remnant of damage. Tommy would only get up and talk with the police officer for some minutes to clarify what he was doing lying on the floor at such time before leaving back to his home. On the way back home, Tommy kept thinking about what just happened. His theory somehow proved to be true, he was indeed immortal. As he opened the door of his home, his mind would be taken by countless doubts. Being immortal meant he could do whatever he wanted without any mortal consequence falling over him. The idea of being a superhero was easily the first idea he discarded for sounding too stupid and nonsensical to him, superheroes didn't exist after all.
No matter what he chose, he was sure that his life would only get better after this discovery. He could only think about the thousands of things he could do since he had all the time in the universe to do whatever he wanted. From spending days reading books to learning new skills and techniques to improve his abilities.
Thanks to his abilities, Tommy managed to conquer things he thought he would never see in his life, material stuff such as money, Fame, Influence, and Health. But the more the decades passed, the more Tommy realized how bad his powers were becoming. 50 years had passed ever since he gained his immortality and he began realizing the burden of his abilities, his friends were slowly dying one by one due to oldness. The more time passed, Tommy slowly became lonely again and lost almost all the people he once cared for. Despite having everything a man could ever wish for, Tommy found himself empty and cold for the first time in years. No matter all the money and power he had now, nothing of that covered the void that was covering his heart
Even though he was losing his friends, Tommy tried to stay optimistic about the situation. Living forever still seemed pretty cool and nice for him, not needing to feel the pain of mortality and the limitation of mankind over his back. He could stay young and beautiful forever, but that was still something he was not fully willed to let go of despite losing friends year by year
Through the decades that passed, Tommy eventually met a woman named Elizabeth while walking in the park. It was love at first sight, and after both interacted, and marked a date to meet each other better. It was visible that love would bloom from this, giving Tommy yet again another reason to be happy and filled with emotions. Unfortunately, just like his friends, this relationship would never last forever and the more the years passed, his girlfriend and later wife, would age and sick.
Memories of his family passed through his mind as he said goodbye to his beloved wife on her grave. Even after the funeral was over, Tommy couldn't find himself in the mood to leave the place. The day seemed greyer that day and the winds were howling in sadness, the environment seemed dead around Tommy just like his will to live again. As he remained frozen, still hurt from the loss, rain would fall over the place. At this moment Tommy understood how bad the power he thought to be a blessing was, from a dream to a nightmare and a curse to him. He would never again be able to be with anyone as they would certainly die with the decades, and neither befriend people as anyone he tried to befriend would eventually also die. This would force Tommy to isolate himself in the woods of Siberia, away from civilization and any contact that could somehow make him feel affected by a possible loss again. Upon constructing a hut there, Tommy established his new home and began living in the woods of Siberia alone. With all his money, he had resources enough to create a bunker within the hut, as a way to increase the isolation. Nothing mattered to him anymore, life was meaningless to him at this point and happiness was nothing more than a temporary illusion to him.
And so the decades kept passing and passing by, 15.000 years later in the future and Tommy was still there alive on the planet. He was the only human from a forgotten century to be existing together with what seemed to be a newly developed species of homo sapiens. During this period, Earth went through drastic changes such as the Sahara desert becoming a tropical forest again. Despite the intense feeling of loneliness and sadness from being the only one to see this, it was incredible at the same time to be the only one to see how Earth was gradually changing as the centuries passed. In about 60 Million years in the future, the world as we know has changed extremely. Not only did climatic changes modify how the planet looked but the steps of the man on the moon from the Apollo mission had completely faded. Humans no longer existed but a new race on earth known as the "Homo Aequilibrius" or as they were known, the "Balanced Humans"
Despite having passed so many years, Tommy would still remember everything he did. For some reason, his mind was managing to store all the information he had acquired through the years. This was something he discovered at some point in the past. Usually for a normal human, living for so many years like this would overcharge the brain's capacity, having a limit of how much information a human can process. But Tommy was still there standing like nothing happened, remembering every single thing he did through all the years that passed. His mind was adapting and expanding his cerebral capacity beyond human limitations. He had acquired knowledge beyond human understanding due to living so many years, but this would not be the end of his journey.
70 million years in the future passed, and it marked the end of life as we know it due to an apocalyptic meteor that crashed on Earth and wiped out 99% of the planet's fauna and flora. And yet again, Tommy was the only human left alive on a desolated planet. Due to the meteor's impact, a huge layer of dust covered the planet, creating an eternal winter on Earth. Nothing of that mattered, after all, Tommy's body managed to adapt and overcome the cold. Despite not being directly affected by the natural disasters happening, Tommy felt like he no longer had reasons to remain on Earth. All the persons he loved died eons ago and all he had left were detailed memories of what once seemed to be happiness to him, now being only a forgotten past he would never be able to recover. With this in mind, Tommy began constructing a spaceship to escape Earth, using the resources Earth had on the abandoned mines and the modern technology he had stored in his bunker. This process would take Tommy 50 years before concluding it and using it to escape Earth's orbit. Upon escaping the orbit of Earth and leaving his so-loved planet, Tommy would search for shelter and home in Mars's orbit. The planet just like Earth went through several changes through the eons, gaining rings now. He didn't plan to land and live on Mars but to just stay in its orbit, like a satellite.
In 800.000 Million years, many things happened. Earth gained a new continent, and Saturn lost all its rings and the beauty humans used to admire back in the distant past. The sun's activity and light also increased during this time, making Earth completely inhabitable to anything, and forever turning it into a desert planet with nothing left remaining. Any trace that humanity or any civilization once existed on Earth is now completely gone, not even the great pyramids and structures that were believed to be the only thing left, also didn't survive time itself. And of course, Tommy was the last survivor to be able to experiment in this forgotten era. Deep down, Tommy couldn't help but feel regret for once having made that wish on that day, wishing he could have died of cancer instead. Despite being the only human to gaze on how would be Earth's fate and having information that any scientist would kill to have, Tommy still felt lonely and sad for not being able to share this feeling with anyone anymore, being cursed to stay alone forever.
5 billion years later into the future, Tommy was forced to migrate and go beyond the orbit of Mars, being forced to orbit Saturn instead due to Earth having been engulfed by the Sun, now a giant red star that expanded beyond the orbit of Mars. During this period, the habitable zone changed from Earth's orbit to Saturn's orbit. The same feeling of loneliness and nostalgia remained on Tommy even after millions of years of living alone. Despite the eons that were passing, his mind still preserved all his memories, from the day he gained his powers, till the present days of his miserable life. He could remember everything with clarity, all the details he did and went through in all those years that passed. The more the eons passed the more his mind kept expanding, this would have negative effects in the future as more time kept passing.
200 Billion years later, 90% of the universe's stars have died and exhausted their fuel, leading the universe to become dark and starting what humans once predicted as the Black Hole Era. Tommy was still there and the only lifeform that still existed in the universe after so many eras that passed. Due to the death of the sun millions of years ago, he was forced to leave the solar system and began orbiting black holes as the last resource of survival. Tommy knew that the end of the universe was close, it would not take too long before the last star to finally die and give start to a True Dark Era. The more time passed, the closer Tommy was to facing an eternal prison of darkness and being completely left in the void. Not being sure of what would happen to him if he decided to wait for more time made Tommy use all the knowledge and experience he earned through the years to put into practice research about the string theory to understand how the fabric of space worked and about the multiverse theory as well.
1 Trillion years into the future and every single star that once existed, has died and become cosmic corpses floating in the dead space. Entropy has finally reached its max. The universe has expanded through its whole lifetime and created an almost infinite amount of space in the universe. Now Dark Energy has stopped expanding space and the universe, being with a size beyond compression, lies dead and cold. With only small particles floating in the dark dead space, but due to the size of the universe, forever being isolated from each other. No interaction will happen between them and the chances of anything happening are now 0%. This is how the universe will end, how everything will be concluded.
Fortunately for Tommy, he had managed to flee and escape the universe's limits. As a consequence of his brain and mind having adapted and expanded infinitely through the eons and eras, caused Tommy's mind to grow beyond human compression, breaking free from his physical limitations and causing him to understand the true nature of the universe. How everything was small and how time itself was practically irrelevant when looked closely. Now that Tommy had a full understanding of the universe, he could see how time was small and basically, just a cubic cage that kept him trapped in a finite space.
His research to discover and crack the secrets of the cosmos and digging into the cosmology of the universe, led Tommy to not only discover alternative universes and confirm the multiverse theory but to discover and prove the string theory was also true as well. Tommy had not only discovered frontiers beyond what existed within his universe but also universes that did not obey the laws of the universe he existed and once was part of. While his universe and the others worked under limitations, Tommy had discovered what seemed to be the Mathematical Universes, proposed by the scientist Max Tegmark in the past. Universes made entirely of mathematical concepts and structures, the mathematical multiverse that transcended his universe and all the infinite ones below it as a whole.
His entire life seemed to be resumed to loneliness, boredom, and the constant feeling of sadness for having once lost his mortality and joy for life. But those feelings would fade once Tommy managed to understand the nature of the universe, and suddenly all the feelings he felt for all those millions of years became trivial to him as he understood that existence was never limited to his perception of the universe but expanded higher than what scientists used to believe and now he was the first and only one to be experiencing this as well. And once he escaped his reality, his perception of how the cosmos worked changed forever. He didn't know what would be his goal from now on, but one thing was sure, he had finally stopped feeling alone and bored. He was no longer an empty and bored man, but he now had the company of the cosmos and all its possible universes available for him to observe and watch over.
Maybe living forever might be a curse for some people, depending on the situation, it can either be a sentence to a fate worse than death or a bill to enlightenment. Instead of trying to control what hasn't happened yet, we can instead enjoy the good moments that we can still control. Maybe one day, everything we like and everyone we love, might disappear yet. Maybe having a short life might not be bad sometimes. For humans, many of them would wish to be immortal and have the chance to experience the eons passing, but the truth is that almost none of them would be able to handle the eons crushing their minds, and without proper protection and assistance such as how Tommy had, they would eventually stop thinking and become an object floating in space. Living forever is not only a desire most humans share, but a dream almost all of them have, from kids to adults. If only they knew the consequences that come with this, all of them would immediately retreat in fear.
Humanity is not ready for immortality, but I'm glad that at least one of them managed to go beyond mankind's perception and limitations.
THE END.